San José (Costa Rica). July 7, 2023 is the anniversary of the birth into heaven of Blessed Sr. Maria Romero Meneses (1977-2022), Daughter of Mary Help of Christians of Central America whose life, as she herself says, is summed up in two pillars: “Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and Mary Help of Christians, my two loves, ensure that nothing and no one can distract or divert me from my devotion focused on You.”
Born in Granada, Nicaragua, in 1902, Sr. Maria found in Mary Help of Christians School of the FMA the environment that shaped her vocation. On 6 January 2023, exactly 100 years ago, she made her first profession in El Salvador. From there she went to work in her Country and then went to Costa Rica, where she lived for 46 years as a catechist, responsible for oratories, youth groups, music and drawing teacher, student choir animator, all with the constant concern of reaching the poorest.
In the last 18 years of her life, the Lord led her to consolidate the social works, characteristic of her work, in the beloved Casa Maria Ausiliatrice. This House is not just a social work. It also has a particular perspective, so dear to Sr. Maria: to spread and increase trust and love for the Eucharistic Jesus and Mary Help of Christians.
One of the devotions that Sr. Maria spread with great faith, enthusiasm, and perseverance was that of the “Fifteen Saturdays to Mary Help of Christians”. As Sr. Domenica Grassiano explains, “Sister Maria had begun the practice of the Fifteen Saturdays wanting to combine devotion to Our Lady and participation in Mass and Communion. If for fifteen Saturdays, a person, after having gone to Confession, went to Mass and received Communion, the person could assume the holy habit of no longer being able to avoid uniting self with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament” (Positio I, Cap. XIV 131).
The “Fifteen Saturdays” were spread by the Italian Blessed Bartolo Longo, of the Dominican Third Order, founder of the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii. This Shrine would become the center of diffusion of this practice, which consists in the commitment to receive Holy Communion for 15 consecutive Saturdays, recite at least a third of the Rosary, meditate on the Mysteries and practice them, sanctifying the day. The aim was to obtain a special grace from Our Lady of Pompeii. The first edition, published in 1877, was very well received throughout Italy.
A comparison with the text that Sr. Maria circulated shows that it is a free and creative adaptation of Longo’s text, synthesized and addressed, not to the invocation of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii, but to Mary Help of Christians.
The fruits of this devotion of the “Fifteen Saturdays to Mary Help of Christians” are innumerable. Sr. Maria believed it ardently. She knew that “her Queen” would listen and act. She herself says:
“How many people come to me to consult me. The remedy I give them for their suffering is always the same, ‘Make the fifteen Saturdays’ in honor of Our Lady. And the graces multiply. When they come back to tell me that they obtained the desired grace, or the expected miracle, I tell them, ‘Now do another fifteen Saturdays to thank Our Lady, and then another fifteen Saturdays so that the suffering does not repeat itself.’ In this way, they form the habit of turning to the Virgin and to Jesus”.
In this regard, Sr. Anna Maria Cavallini recounts, “Here a joke arose among some ladies who complained about the sharp increase in the price of goods. One of them said in a very amused way, ‘Everything has increased, even the fifteen Saturdays of the Blessed Virgin. Sr. Maria only recommended fifteen and now she’s already at sixty'” (CAVALLINI Anna Maria, Sr. María Romero in the writings, LIL, San José, 2018, pp. 270-271).
Sr. Maria never stopped recommending:
“The fifteen Saturdays are the driving force that moves hearts and saves souls. A mystery of the Holy Rosary, recited every time with faith and combined with Holy Mass and a well-done Communion for fifteen consecutive Saturdays, works miracles.
Continue to pray and do not fail to do the 15 Saturdays with Mary Help of Christians. She will never abandon you and you will always have her protection.
Do not give up the 15 Saturdays with the Help of Christians; be constant in prayer. Do not forget, ‘Love and prayer’ to obtain all the graces.
Do the 15 Saturdays to Mary Help of Christians. If you have started them, continue them until you complete 60 uninterrupted Saturdays”.
During her trip to Italy from July to October 1969, invited by the Superior General Mother Ersilia Canta, she wrote to her dear sister Laura Medal:
“I am, as I tell you in my letter, surprised, but I am very happy, because even as I speak to the Sisters, I infuse them with more love for my Queen and, of course, what more could I want? Next Saturday, i.e., the day after tomorrow, the 23rd, at least 300 Sisters will begin, starting with the Mothers, the 15 Saturdays and, on the first Saturday of September, the first five Saturdays”.
Sr. Maria, with the clear and humble awareness of being a fragile and poor boat, lived anchored to two precious pillars, her King and her Queen. She was truly a devoted daughter; truly a lover and promoter of Jesus in the Eucharist and of Mary Help of Christians.
“Here, in our House, many people come to me from morning to night in search of physical, moral, or spiritual health which our Heavenly Mother hastens to grant them in exchange for fulfilling what I advise them to do: ‘Holy Mass, Visit to the Blessed Sacrament, Novena of Mary Help of Christians together with the Holy Rosary and the Fifteen consecutive Saturdays of Communion (repeated four times) in honor of the Mysteries of the Rosary.’ And then, considering the infinite goodness of the Lord who, not only among the Sisters of this House or of the Province, or of all the Congregations, but among all the Sisters of the world, has chosen me from all eternity to entrust me with this mission of love: to spread the devotion to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and to Mary Help of Christians and… to console the afflicted and convert sinners… (To Mother Ausilia Corallo, 1974)”.
On July 7, the Facebook Page of Sr. Maria Romero Social Works, will transmit the Eucharistic Celebration.
For further study:
Podcast sul YouTube Channel Sr. María Romero Historical Theological Center of San José.
Texts of the Celebrations in spanish
